"How ironic," Riku drawled, stepping out of wherever it was he had been and walking on the corpse of the dragon Maleficent had become. "She was just a puppet after all."

"What?" Donald yelled, though no one could tell if he was demanding an explanation or shouting in surprise.

"The Heartless were using Maleficent from the beginning," Riku continued as the corpse disappeared from beneath his feet. "She failed to notice the darkness in her heart eating away at her. A fitting end for such a fool."

Riku sounded positivelly pleased about it. Before Sora or anyone else could protest or retaliate, Riku disappeared yet again.

"Sora," Mizu said, staring at an opening in the wall, shoulders heaving as though she were breathing heavilly. Perhaps she was, since she had thrown herself into the fight with uncharacteristic abandon. The tone she had used frightened Sora a little, too. He had never heard her angry before.

"Let's go," she continued, looking at him out of the corner of her eye. Something about his expression must have tipped her off, though, because she turned a little to face him more fully, though still facing the doorway, and smiled reassuringly. "Kairi's waiting."

That decided him. Mizu had a hard time keeping pace with him, and her legs were longer! They made it to the next room in record time, and the scene waiting for them sent them all running up the stairs with no regard to whether or not it could be a trap.

"Kairi!" Sora breathed, then ran to her and lifted her gently in his arms. She was still breathing, but she didn't seem to be... there. "Kairi! Kairi! Open your eyes!"

"It's no use," drawled a voice from somewhere up above the level the friends were standing on. Sora looked up, and he didn't need Mizu's whispered exclamation to identify the person perched above the scene.

"Riku..."

"That girl has lost her heart," Riku continued as though he hadn't heard Mizu. "She cannot wake up."

"What?" Sora exclaimed, then took a closer look at his best friend, gently laid Kairi back down on the floor, and stood to confront him. "You... You're not Riku." He wasn't surprised in the least when he heard Mizu drawing her daggers.

"The keyhole cannot be completed so long as the last princess of heart still sleeps," the imposter said, jumping down from his perch and gently descending to the floor as he spoke.

"The princess... ?" Sora asked, looking at the girl behind him, then turning back to the doppleganger. "Kairi's a princess?"

"Yes," the fake confirmed, "and without her power the keyhole will remain incomplete. It is time she awakened."

"Whoever you are, let Riku go!" Sora demanded. "Give him back his heart!"

"Or I'll carve it out of your corpse!" Mizu threatened, taking a step forward and brandishing one of her knives. Riku's imposter ignored her, and grinned mockingly at Sora.

"But first," he explained, still with that mockingly evil grin, "you must give the princess back her heart."

Sora's heart twinged painfully, and he was driven to his knees, clutching his chest. He didn't know what that feeling meant, but he knew it had something to do with Kairi, and he also knew he had to keep this fake's hands away from her!

"Sora!" Donald and Mizu exclaimed, and Mizu knelt next to him, slipping her daggers back into their sheathes and resting one hand protectivelly on his shoulder.

"What's--"

"Don't you see yet?" Riku demanded. "The princess's heart is responding. It has been there all along. Kairi's heart rests within you!"

"Kairi..." Sora gasped, still trying to get over that sharp pain that had hit him so suddenly. "Kairi's inside me?"

"I know all that there is to know," Riku assured him calmly, almost soothingly.

"Tell me," Sora demanded, looking the imposter in the face. "Who are you?"

The fake Riku grinned and spread his arms wide.

"It is I, Ansem, the seeker of darkness!"

Donald charged at Ansem, and Mizu threw one of the knives she had recieved from Yuffie, though Sora didn't see where she had drawn it from. Ansem dodged the missile, and knocked Donald flying out of a magical barrier that Sora just now noticed had blocked Goofy from coming in with them. When Mizu's knife didn't work, however, she threw herself at Ansem, drawing the longer of her knives in the process.

Ansem grabbed her by the neck and held her off. She dropped the knife in favor of attempting to pry his fingers away from her throat, but he lifted her effortlessly from the ground and tossed her out after Donald as if she were nothing more than a rag doll. Sora watched Mizu go flying, but was relieved when he saw her flip in mid-air, legs straight and arms out, and land safely several feet away.

"So," Ansem said as though nothing had happened, raising his Keyblade, "I shall release you now, princess. Complete the keyhole with your power. Open the door, lead me into everlasting darkness!"

Sora couldn't bear to watch as the Keyblade began it's descent, then Kairi's voice called out to him in perfect harmony with Mizu's shout, and he snapped out of it, bringing his own Keyblade out to block the one aiming for his head.

"Forget it," he snarled. "There's no way you're taking Kairi's heart!" He surged to his feet, shoving Ansem back, then brought his Keyblade into it's customary position, clasped in both hands and down low to his right, ready to block, parry, or attack at a moment's notice.

Ansem leapt back, out of range, then lunged back in with inhuman speed, his Keyblade aimed for Sora's heart. Sora brought his own Keyblade to bear, blocking the attack, then launching into an under-handed swing of his own, sending Ansem back again. Instead of immediatelly rushing in for another attack, though, Ansem retreated slightly, then raised his hand to blast Sora with the same attack that Goofy had blocked in the Entrance Hall. Sora leapt to the side and rolled, unfortunatelly right into Ansem's waiting blade. Still crouched on the floor, Sora somehow managed to block it, and kicked out at Ansem's legs.

Ansem grinned, spread his arms, and began to levitate just off of the floor. Sora didn't stick around to see what he was up to. Instead, he jumped into the air and, using powers he had learned from Peter Pan back in Neverland, went into a long glide around Ansem, somehow managing to dodge the pillars of energy that erupted from the floor. Sora blew out a short sigh of relief, knowing that he couldn't have rolled out of the range of those without landing smack in the middle of the next one. Unfortunatelly, he couldn't maintain his glide for long, and when he landed, Ansem charged him, shrouded in an orb of dark energy. Sora swung his Keyblade and knocked Ansem off balance, but the man just charged back in again.

Ansem continued pressing Sora, using the same attack-and-run tactics until he got far enough away that he could use his Dark Aura attack again, but eventually, Sora's Keyblade slipped too far past Ansem's defenses, and he--as Mizu would later say while describing the fight--"took the bastard out."

Ansem dropped his Keyblade and disappeared, taking Riku--or his body at least--along for the ride, apparently not willing to give up such an excelent vessel.

"Riku!" Sora shouted, but Donald distracted him.

"Sora! Sora, look!"

"The... The keyhokle!" Goofy clarified, and both were staring in shock at the manifestation of the door to the heart of the world as something began happening to it. Sora tried to use the Keyblade to seal it, but something was wrong, and his attempt failed.

"It won't work," Goofy pointed out. "The keyhole's not finished yet!"

"What can we do?" Sora demanded.

"Maybe we've gotta go wake Kairi up."

"I think you're right," Sora admitted. "If we can free her heart... But... But how?" He looked around, and spotted the Keyblade that Ansem had dropped. Sora fully suspected that the Keyblade was actually Riku's, but it wasn't who owned it that caught his attention about it. "A Keyblade that opens people's hearts... I wonder."

"Sora?" Goofy asked. Sora ignored him and walked over to the Keyblade, picking it up.

"Sora, hold on!" Goofy said in immediate protest.

"No, wait!" Donald seconded.

"You're not--" Mizu added, but Sora's serene smile cut her off, and she stared in abject horror as he turned the tip of the Keyblade towards himself.

"Sora..." Donald said, as though he were about to reason with Sora to avoid what he was obviously intent on doing. Sora ignored him, raised the Keyblade, and plunged it into his heart.

"Sora!" Donald and Mizu yelled simultaneously. They heard and echoe of their shout as Kairi got up and saw what was happening. She shot past them like a bullet loosed from a gun and tried to catch Sora before he hit the ground, but he disappeared before she got there.

"Sora!" Donald called again. "Come back, Sora!"

Kairi stared at the spot where Sora would have been had he actually hit the ground in disbelief, one hand clenching over her heart.

"Sora," she whispered, "are you really-- No! It can't be! I won't let him go!"

Mizu clenched her fists and her jaw, visibly shaking in rage and grief.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!" she growled, her fists tightening with each word until her nails cut into her palms and drew blood. "Sora, you idiot, there has to have been another way!"

"So," drawled a familiar voice from off to the side, "you have awakened at last, Princess. The keyhole is now complete. You have served your purpose. But now it's over."

Donald, Goofy, and Mizu each took up defensive stances between Kairi and a man none of them recognized on sight, but knew by his voice. This was the real Ansem.

"Don't make another move!" Donald ordered.

"Do you think we can stop him all by ourselves?" Goofy asked. Donald shook his head.

"I don't know!" he admitted desperatelly.

"It doesn't matter if we can or not," Mizu growled, her eyes fixed on Ansem and shining with an emotion very few had ever seen in her: pure, unadorned, and utter loathing. With a feral snarl, she launched herself at the man before her, knives leading. Ansem moved to attack, bringing out Riku's Keyblade again, but his movements were halting, stilted, as though he didn't have any control over his body.

"Impossible," he muttered, then an image of Riku appeared before him, holding his arms out and straining back as though he were attempting to keep Ansem at bay. Mizu skidded to a halt, her arms going limp at her side and her jaw almost completelly slack in surprise.

"No," Riku snarled. "You won't use me for this!"

"Riku!" Kairi shouted in astonishment. She then shrieked in horror as she saw that Ansem had regained enough control of his body for one last attack.

Riku's Keyblade shot unerringly for Mizu's unprotected stomach.